With a Whimper
by Dream Hime
Summary: Herc understands, but he cannot fix any of the broken pieces that mourn in that tiny room, and cannot help but hate himself for it. She curls into his outstretched hand, pressing her cheek to his palm, jagged edges and broken dreams. It is all he has left.


I own neither Pacific Rim or Inuyasha. If I did though, if I did….

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"What do you think he's like Kagome?" Mako murmured, head down, cheeks red.

"I don't know Mako." Kagome looked up at the other woman before swinging herself upright in her chair. "I think … I think anyone who pilots a giant mech called _Gipsy Danger_ should be fantastical."

"A Jaeger, not a _mech_." Mako reprimands, dropping the pillow she'd been curled around.

Kagome shrugged, slipping her feet over the arm of the chair.

"I'll call it what I want. I could just go back to calling it that metal-thing-over-there."

"Oh god." Mako closed her eyes. "That was humiliating." Kagome smiled cheerfully and picked at her nails. "Do you really think he'll be fantastic?"

Kagome glanced over at Mako, meeting her brown eyes.

"He has to be. You're half in love with him already and you've never even met."

Mako blushed, pushing herself to her feet.

"Don't say things like that you idiot." She rushed from the room, slamming the door behind her.

Kagome laughed when the door creaked open.

"Realized I'm in your room have you?"

Mako doesn't respond to her, choosing instead to flop over her bed with none of the grace she's worked for.

Kagome smiled and closed her eyes, imaging she could hear the sound of the sea from miles and miles away.

xxxxxxx

Kagome slams into a wall of muscle.

"Well, well, what have we here?" A hand grasps her arm and helps her keep her balance. Kagome accepts the help as graciously as she can seeing as she's slammed into a wall of muscle right outside her door. She looks the man up and down, noting the brown hair and blue eyes and then she sees the dog.

She hasn't seen a dog in ages. Not since she's been brought to the Shatterdome. Not since … then.

"Oh Sweetie!" She drops to her knees and coos at the dog, ignoring the man. She's petting the dog, scratching his ears and patting everywhere she can reach when the owner interrupts her.

"He's Max, not … _sweetie_. Have a little respect." She snorts at him, running her fingers over the dog's skull. How long has it been since she was brought here? Weeks, months, years? She kisses the do'gs head before standing up.

The man hasn't moved. He's still in her space, in front of her door, smiling at her.

"So you like Max, eh?"

She looks down at the dog and decides that anyone who owns such a beautiful animal can't be too bad.

"He's gorgeous."

"We can go to my room. I can show you some tricks."

Kagome decides she's judged too soon and punches him in the thigh, high and quite close to his tender bits. He lets out an almost girlish squeal and jumps back. She goes to mess hall like she'd planned.

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Mako has met Raleigh Becket and has fallen a little more in love every time their eyes meet. Kagome can see it. She is happy for her. And yet she wishes Mako would remember her. Mako is not a bad friend, she's in love and love is fleeting. Kagome wishes she can have someone to speak with about Chuck.

Kagome spends as much time with him as she can. His father is wonderful, and he's told her how much she's changing his son. Chuck is still arrogant, still obnoxious, still … still an asshole. But he's kinder when she's around. Less prone to bragging and announcing his greatness and more prone to sitting with her head in his lap, combing his fingers through her hair and telling him about what he can remember of his home before the Kaiju destroyed it. He speaks reverently about his mother, how wonderful she was, how beautiful. He talks about his uncle, about how he was raised once the walls fell and his family discovered they'd only be safe if they protected themselves.

He tells her everything, and so she does the same. Kagome can't fathom not telling him the truth about herself. About the well and Inuyasha. About the Kaiju the crushed her brother under its feet and roared and roared and roared before it died. She tells him what Pentecost doesn't want anyone to know. If all of the Jaeger's fall, she'll be there. It's her duty to ensure that their world ends with a bang.

He doesn't joke about what she tells him. He doesn't ask what she could do that he cannot. He accepts her.

It isn't until he drifts with his father that he realizes how much he loves the tiny Japanese woman. And he can feel his father's acceptance and joy winding around him and for once he can picture a life outside of his Jaeger.

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Kagome watches as the Kaiju sends out a blast that disables the Jaeger's. She watches the _Striker Eureka _stand so still, too still in the sea. She closes her eyes and prepares to have her heart ripped out of her chest. Mako's hand slips into hers, cold and sweaty. She looks into her friend's eyes and sees her terror.

So she does what she can to take it away. Because she knows that Mako is about to go out there too. She kisses the girl's forehead, combs her fingers through the blue streaks in her hair and pretends to not feel her heart breaking with every breath.

And then Mako is leaving, going to war with Raleigh at her side and Kagome can only watch.

She's given up hope so long ago. It flowed out of her when her brother died, when her mother disappeared, when her grandfather had screamed and screamed at screamed from inside the house where it was crushing him to death.

And then the _Striker _was safe. Chuck was safe.

Kagome felt hope blossom and clutched at it greedily.

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She wants to rage. To rip though Pentecost and tear him down until he's nothing but a smudge on the floor. She wants to rend his flesh into tiny chunks and hand-feed them to the Kaiju. Herc's arm is broken and he will not let her heal it. They will not let her be useful. They will not let her go with Chuck to the Rim.

She is their last defense.

She rages at Pentecost. Hurls insults and curses and even goes as far as to insult the reasons behind why he "saved" Mako Mori.

Mako is pale as death and not half as forgiving when she throws Kagome into her room and locks her in. So she rages at the door, screaming and screaming and screaming because she knows what is happening.

And all she wants is to be with Chuck.

Herc opens the door hous later, pale and broken. He looks at the blue-eyed woman sitting on the floor, at her bloodied fingers, shorn hair and flat eyes and knows that she already knows why he's there.

"He loved you."

Kagome feels her heart shatter. She closes her eyes and crawls to her knees. She crawls to him, pressing her face to his leg and sobbing brokenly. He touches her head with his fingers. All her glorious hair is gone, scattered around the room like so much trash. He untangles her from around his leg, half carries, half drags her to the bed and pushes her down to the mattress.

Max climbs into the bed, by her feet. She hears the door close and shoes drop to the floor.

Herc kneels on the floor next to the bed. He presses his fingers to the back of her neck and falls still and silent. She can feel him trembling, can hear him sniffling as he tries not to cry, can smell when the tears run down his face.

"He loved you so much." He offers again, as if that can help.

"I love him."

"He knows."

Kagome opens her eyes, stares at the wall. She rolls over, presses her hand to Herc's broken arm and heals it.

"Oh God." He moans. "Oh God." Because now he understands why she wanted to go with Chuck. He understands why Chuck's thoughts and hopes and dreams revolved around her. He understands how he's failed his son and the love of his son's life.

He understands why, but he cannot fix any of the broken pieces that mourn in that tiny room, and cannot help but hate himself for it. She curls into his outstretched hand, pressing her cheek to his palm, jagged edges and broken dreams.

"Tell me about Chuck."

And he does.

It is all he has left.


End file.
